One More Saturday Night

Lyrics:Bob WeirMusic:Bob Weir

Played by Bob Weir with the Grateful Dead and with most of his other bands.

I went down to the mountain, I was drinking some wine (note 1)
I looked up into heaven, lord I saw a mighty sign
Writ in fire across the heaven, plain as black and white
Get prepared, there's gonna be a party tonight

Everybody's dancing down at the local armory (note 2)
With a basement full of dynamite and live artillery
Temperature keeps rising, everybody getting high
Come the rocking stroke of midnight, the whole place is gonna fly

[chorus]

I turn on Channel Six, the President comes on the news (note 3)
Says I got no satisfaction, that's why I sing the blues
His wife says don't get crazy, Lord you know what to do (note 4)
Just crank that old Victrola, put on your rocking shoes

[chorus]

Then God way up in heaven, for whatever it was worth
Thought he'd have a big old party, thought he'd call it planet earth
Don't worry about tomorrow, Lord, you'll know it when it comes (note 5)
When the rocking, rolling music meets the rising, shining sun

[chorus]

Notes(1) in early (rehearsal) versions, Bob Weir sang "..., like I do from time to time"(2) variations Bob Weir has sung include "Everybody's dancing at the local skating rink" (thanks to Dan Franzen for spotting this)(3) variations include "I turn on my TV ..." (thanks to Dan Franzen for pointing this out)(4) on 17 April 1982 (and perhaps on other occasions during Ronald Reagan's presidency), Bob Weir sang "Nancy says don't get crazy Ron, you know just what to do."
Similarly, in the late 80's during George Bush Senior's Presidency, he sang "His wife says don't get crazy George, you know just what to do." He also sang this version with The Dead in reference to George Bush Junior (eg on 9 August 2003) (thanks to Jay Tenewitz, Brian Schnapp and Michael for the info)(5) in an early version of the song, on 26 October 1971, Bob Weir sang these two lines as:

I may be young and crazy, but I can't see Reason One
For fightin' or complainin' when we should be havin' fun

Background
Dennis McNally's book, "A Long Strange Trip" has an account of how this song was written:

"[Weir and Hunter] clashed again over "One More Saturday Night." Having
gotten Hunter's lyrics, Weir rewrote them--badly in Hunter's opinion--and
then asked to call the resulting song "U.S.Blues," which Hunter refused to
permit. In the end, he declined any association with the song and it was
credited to Weir alone." [p393]

Robert Hunter confirmed this in a 1978 interview:

"The song that Weir did, "One More Satuday Night", was originally "U.S.Blues", but he got it into his mind to re-write
the lyrics. And he still wanted to call it "U.S.Blues". But I said no way, I'll write another "U.S.Blues", which I did."

Mike Scheier has an early vinyl copy of "Ace" and says the song is credited to "Weir/Hunter" there--this was changed on later pressings.

David Gans asked Bob Weir about this in an interview on 2 March 2004

Gans: A story that ... I wanted to check out with you is, I've heard rumors over the years that "One More Saturday Night" actually began as a Hunter lyric and he took his name off it. Is that true?Weir: Yeah, it began as a Hunter lyric. "One more Saturday night" was his line. I wrote the rest. [laughs]Gans: How did that happen?Weir: I don't remember. I think he had a verse or something, a sketch he gave me. I got started working on it and, it all happened in one night. I got up a head of steam and cranked the song out, and I used that one line. And as I was writing, the rest of that verse wasn't ringing my lofty bells, and I kept intending to work it back in to the tune, and then take everything I'd written and submit to Hunter and let him correct it, but he... as far as he was concerned, the song was done, so he took his name off it.

Robert Hunter posted the following lyrics on DeadNet Central -
I don't know if it's the verse Weir refers to

Dynamitin' depot, bricks are pourin down
Cost your reputation if they catch you hangin round
Ev'ry choice you look at serves but to confuse
Reckon you could call it the United States Blues
Oh baby, One more Saturday night
Unhuh, One more Saturday night

Futher Information
For an online discussion of the lyrics to this song see the deadsongs.vue conference on The Well.
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For information on references in the lyrics see David Dodd's Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
For David Dodd's discussion of this song on dead.net see Greatest Stories Ever Told
For online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For sheet music, see:
Grateful Dead Anthology Volume 1 (piano arrangement)
Grateful Dead Authentic Guitar Classics Volume 2 (guitar TAB)
Without A Net Songbook (piano arrangement)
Hundred Year Hall songbook (guitar TAB)
Very Best Of The Grateful Dead (guitar TAB)